Playa Carillo

The beach south of here is one of my favorites. Like Samara it's half moon shaped. At both ends are rocky headlands. In the middle are two miles of smooth sand that give way to picture perfect palm trees spaced far enough apart to hang hundreds of hammocks. But there are rarely more than a half dozen. The road runs along the beach and east of it there is cow pasture and a small overgrown airstrip. Occasionally the road bridges small rivers and at its south end a larger one with a twelve foot crocodile we saw today. When the sun is out and the clouds are parked like airships at the horizon and the wAter is blue green, it is the beach one dreams of in the doldrums of winter.

Jim and I went first at nine. The sun was out but not overbearing. After a swim we went to the woman selling coconuts. With her machete she deftly skinned the just picked orbs and poked a hole for a straw to drink from. After we handed it back to her and she split it in two so to eat the white subtle flesh. 

In the afternoon another group wanted to see it, so I returned with seven of them under threatening skies. A few were slow so I lagged behind to make sure they were ok. The rain held off long enough for a swim, a look around the tidal pools and a gander at the south end bridge. The coconut woman told us earlier to throw something in the water to excite the croc. So we did and sure enough a big bastard  surfaced just below us. Michelle was the first to see him.  He had a blue nylon line trailing from his mouth. 

At the first sound of thunder we rode home. We arrived in shifts at the school and I joined the group at Cocos while they ate lunch and I had a couple of beers. The skies opened up while we waited for our food and stopped when we finished. It was a good day.